Ambivalent Women’s Agency in Islamic Marriage Law: A Socio-Legal Analysis of Kitab al-Nikah by Sheikh Muhammad Arsyad Al-Banjari

Abstract

This article examines the construction of women’s agency in Islamic marriage law through a socio-legal analysis of Kitab al-Nikah by Sheikh Muhammad Arsyad Al-Banjari, a prominent eighteenth-century Banjar scholar. Rather than approaching the text as a purely doctrinal exposition of Shafi‘i jurisprudence, the study situates Kitab al-Nikah within the socio-cultural context of Banjar society, where women actively participated in economic and social life. Employing a qualitative interpretive method and drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and field, this research analyzes how local practices, classical fiqh, and religious authority intersect in the production of marriage norms. The findings demonstrate that Kitab al-Nikah explicitly recognizes women’s agency through legal provisions on joint marital property, consent in marriage and polygamy, and procedural protections in divorce and reconciliation. These provisions reflect women’s lived experiences and position them as legal subjects within Islamic marriage law. At the same time, the study reveals that this recognition is constrained by patriarchal legal structures that prioritize male leadership and reproduce gender hierarchy within the family. This ambivalent gender logic is not an anomaly but a structural outcome of negotiating cultural accommodation and jurisprudential continuity. By engaging global scholarship on Islamic law and gender, this article contributes to comparative studies of Islamic legal traditions and demonstrates that gender negotiation within Islamic jurisprudence has deep historical roots beyond the Middle Eastern context. The study further highlights the relevance of Banjar Islamic legal thought for understanding the genealogy of contemporary Islamic family law in Indonesia and ongoing debates on gender justice in Muslim societies.